Today physics got "Fun". I thought it would be another exciting day in physics class but I was in for a surprise. This physics class was even more fun than usual. I got to ride a bobsled down a hill and help demonstrate how acceleration works. We also learned the proper procedure for physics word problems. While at first they seemed daunting I quickly understood them. I also got to experience acceleration today when I went surfing. Basically the wave allows you to move forward by staying as a slope behind you and allowing you to either maintain a constant forward velocity, or to turn and change your velocity (accelerate) which is just soooooo much fun! Almost as fun as physics class! I have a picture of me surfing but sadly cannot post it here.

Personally I found this graphing lesson familiar. I wasn't sure why until I went home and opened Logic 9. Logic 9 is a music making program and Velocity is something I modulate (control)to change how often a sound repeats. The bottom half of my screen shows the seconds passing by, and so basically the reason I am already familiar with V/T graphs is because I have already been playing with them without even knowing it. All of the properties are the same. If the line is flat, then the note is being played at a constant velocity, if it is sloping upwards then there is an acceleration of how fast it is being played, and if if the line is sloping downward then it is accelerating in the negative direction. I am still unable to upload pictures...very frustrating because this would make much more sense if you could see the pictures.

Today we learned a lot about graphs, position vs time graphs and how its slope is velocity. Then we learned about velocity vs time graphs and how one translates to the other. The closer to the Y axis (time) the steeper the slope is and the more velocity it has. For some reason blogger is not letting me post an image, so I have to give you the link: http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&sa=N&authuser=0&biw=1046&bih=623&tbm=isch&tbnid=lZtc7IABGT5RSM:&imgrefurl=http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story%3Fpage%3Deasterbrook/091013%26sportCat%3Dnfl&docid=yD3ges231kUytM&imgurl=http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2009/1012/pg2_nasa_rocket_300.jpg&w=300&h=300&ei=2LXaT9WFJcrm2QW-rqnaCA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=693&vpy=90&dur=244&hovh=225&hovw=225&tx=133&ty=138&sig=115798736962501935701&page=1&tbnh=115&tbnw=115&start=0&ndsp=19&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0,i:153 source:http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=easterbrook/091013&sportCat=nfl The reason I chose a picture of a rocket ship is because I found it Ironic that the steeper the slope on a position vs time graph, the more velocity it has. However the steeper you put a rocket, the more force you you have to apply to make it even have velocity. For example an airplane can take off from parallel to the ground, but if you tried to take off in a plane from a vertical position, its engines wouldn't be able to lift it.